ATLANTA, Georgia — August 10, 2009 — OpenHatch Inc. has announced an online network for open source software contributors. OpenHatch helps software developers showcase their experience in the free / open source software community, and discover new ways to participate. The site promotes cross-pollination and collaboration by uniting people, data and resources from open source projects across the web.

Contributors to open source can try out OpenHatch’s private alpha by signing up at http://openhatch.org. OpenHatch automatically compiles portfolios for contributors based on a submitted email address or username. The service also recommends new opportunities via a personalized, cross-project bug aggregator.

Development on OpenHatch continues apace. A mentoring program, recruitment tools for project coordinators, and an experience-based reputation system are some of the features expected before the public beta release later this year. “We live and die by feedback from the open source community,” says co-founder Asheesh Laroia. “If you’re an open source developer, we want you to tell us what would make participation in open source easier and more fun for you.”

OpenHatch is a team of three. Laroia, OpenHatch’s CEO and lead engineer, is a Developer for Debian, one of the largest open source projects, and received an M.S.E. in computer science from Johns Hopkins University. Raphael Krut-Landau is president and lead designer; a fellow Hopkins alumnus, he has built web communities since 2004. Karen Rustad, who directs business development and research, is a former board member of Students for Free Culture and worked on viral media and outreach for library advocate SPARC.

OpenHatch is one of eight companies in the 2009 class of Atlanta-based Shotput Ventures’ startup incubator program. The alpha release coincides with Shotput Ventures’ Demo Day event, a joint presentation for over 100 investors, entrepreneurs and members of the press.